| Category: | Musical composition |
| Dated: | Stony Point, July 1960 |
| Instrumentation: | Amplified small sounds |
| Duration: | Indeterminate |
| Premiere and performer(s): | October 6, 1960 (8 pm) at Mary Bauermeister's Studio, Lintgasse 28 in Cologne, Germany. The work was performed simultaneously with Solo for Voice 2. Performers: John Cage, Cornelius Cardew, Hans G Helms, Nam June Paik, Benjamin Patterson, William Pearson, Kurt Schwertsik, David Tudor. Technical supervision: Leopold von Knobelsdorff |
| Dedicated to: | |
| Choreography: | Merce Cunningham: Paired (1964), Changing Steps (1973), Exercise Piece I (1978), Exercise Piece II (1978) and Exercise Piece III (1980) |
| Published: | Edition Peters 6703 © 1960 by Henmar Press |
| Manuscript: | Realization worksheet (holograph in ink - 3 p.); Realization (holograph in ink - 10+10 p.); Realization (holograph - photocopy - 5 p.); Score (holograph, signed, in ink - 3 p. + 20 lv. + 4 transparencies); Worksheets for a realization (holograph in ink and pencil - 10 p.); Sketches for a realization (holograph in pencil - 6+2 p.); All in New York Public Library. |
| The word 'Cartridge' refers to the cartridge of old phonographic pick-ups, where one can put needle into the
apertures. In 'Cartridge Music' one inserts all kinds of small objects into the cartridges, such as pipe-cleaners, matches,
feathers, wires etc. Furniture is used as well, with contact microphones connected to them. All sounds are to be amplified and
controlled by the performer(s). The number of performers should be at least that of the cartridges and not greater than twice the number of cartridges. Each performer makes his part from the materials provided: 20 numbered sheets with irregular shapes (the number of shapes corresponding to the number of the sheet) and 4 transparencies, one with points, one with circles, another with a circle marked like a stopwatch and the last with a dotted curving line, with a circle at one end. These transparencies should be superimposed on one of the 20 sheets, in order to create a constellation from where one can create one's part. It is also possible to create other pieces from the materials like a Duet for Cymbal or a Piano Duet or Trio or.... Cage used Cartridge Music as a means to compose several lectures such as Where Are We Going? and What Are We Doing? (1960), Rhythm, etc. (1962), Jasper Johns: Stories and Ideas (1963) and On Robert Rauschenberg, Artist, and His Work (1961?). Sources: Published score; New York Public Library online catalog; David Revill: The Roaring Silence; David Vaughan: Merce Cunningham Fifty Years; Paul van Emmerik: Thema's en Variaties; Gisela Gronemeyer: Anything I Say Will Be Misunderstood in 'Neue Zeitschrift für Musik 9 (September 1992)'; Volker Sträbel quoting: Intermedial, Kontrovers, Experimentell. Das Atelier Mary Bauermeister in Köln 1960-62, edited by Historisches Archiv der Stadt Köln, Emons Verlag, Cologne 1993, pp. 48-52. |